KLOPSTOCK, GOTTLIEB FRIEDRICH German poet, was born at Quedlinburg, on July 2, 1724, the eldest son of a lawyer, a man of sterling character and of a deeply religious mind. Both in his birthplace and on the estate of Friedeberg on the Saale, which his father later rented, young Klopstock passed a happy childhood; and more attention having been given to his physical than to his mental development he grew up a strong healthy boy and was an excellent horseman and skater. In his thirteenth year Klopstock returned to Quedlin burg where he attended the gymnasium, and in 5739 proceeded to the famous classical school of Schulpforta. Here he soon be came an adept in Greek and Latin versification, and wrote some meritorious idylls and odes in German. His original intention of making the emperor Henry I. ("The Fowler") the hero of an epic, was, under the influence of Milton's Paradise Lost, with which he became acquainted through Bodmer's translation, aban doned in favour of the religious epic. While yet at school, he had already drafted the plan of Der Messias. On Sept. 21, he delivered on quitting school a remarkable "leaving oration" on epic poetry—Abschiedsrede fiber die epische Poesie, kultur und literargeschichtlich erliiutert—and next proceeded to Jena as a student of theology, where he elaborated the first three cantos of the Messias in prose.
Klopstock removed in 1746 to Leipzig, and here joined the circle of young contributors to the Bremer Beitrdge. In this periodical the first three cantos of the Messias in hexameters were anonymously published in 1748. In Leipzig he also wrote a number of odes, the best known of which is An meine Freunde (1747), afterwards recast as Wingolf (1767). He left the uni versity in 1748 and became a private tutor in the family of a relative at Langensalza. Here unrequited love for a cousin (the "Fanny" of his odes) disturbed his peace of mind. He accepted in 1750 an invitation from Jakob Bodmer (q.v ), the translator of Paradise Lost, to visit him in Zurich. Here Klop stock was at first treated with every kindness and respect and rapidly recovered his spirits. Bodmer, however, was disappointed to find in the young poet of the Messias a man of strong worldly interests, and a coolness sprang up between the two friends.
At this juncture Klopstock was invited by Frederick V. of Denmark, on the recommendation of his minister Bernstorff, to settle at Copenhagen, with an annuity of 400 talers, with a view to the completion of the Messias. On his way to the Danish capital Klopstock met at Hamburg Margareta (Meta) Moller, (the "Cidli" of his odes), an enthusiastic admirer of his poetry, who became his wife in 1754. His happiness was short ; she died in 1758, leaving him almost broken-hearted. His grief at her loss finds pathetic expression in the 15th canto of the Messias. The poet subsequently published his wife's writings, Hinterlassene Werke von Margareta Klopstock (1759), which give evidence of a tender, sensitive and deeply religious spirit. Klopstock now relapsed into melancholy; new ideas failed him, and his poetry became more and more vague and unintelligible. He turned his attention to northern mythology, which he conceived should re place classical subjects in a new school of German poetry. In 177o, on the dismissal of Bernstorff from office, he retired with him to Hamburg, but retained his pension together with the rank of councillor of legation. Here, in 1773, he issued the last five cantos of the Messias. In the following year he published his scheme for the regeneration of German letters, Die Gelehrten republik In 1775 Klopstock travelled south, and making the acquaint ance of Goethe on the way, spent a year at the court of the margrave of Baden at Karlsruhe. Thence, in 1776, with the title of Hofrat and a pension from the margrave, which he retained together with that from the king of Denmark, he returned to Hamburg where he spent the remainder of his life. His latter years he passed in retirement. The French Republic sent him the diploma of honorary citizenship; but, horrified at the terrible scenes the Revolution had enacted in the place of liberty, he returned it. When 67 years of age he contracted a second mar riage with Johanna Elisabeth von Winthem, a widow and a niece of his late wife, who for many years had been one of his most intimate friends. He died at Hamburg on March 14, mourned by all Germany, and was buried by the side of his first wife in the churchyard of the village of Ottensen.